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Monday, April 4, 2016

Challenging a general perception of
the cause of illegal migration from the country, Bangladesh yesterday insisted
that poverty is not necessarily the main factor pushing "some of our
people into the hands of traffickers".

Rather, there are "external
factors and forces" behind the so-called exodus, claimed a Bangladesh
delegation led by Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque at the "Special
Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean" in Bangkok.

While different international
agencies working in the fields of trafficking, migration and cross-border crime
identified many Bangladeshi victims as economic migrants, the Bangladesh
delegation differed on this.

"We have sustained an average
GDP growth rate of 6.2 percent over the last six years. We have reduced poverty
by nearly 2 percent each year, and lifted 50 million people out of poverty
during this time," the foreign secretary said.

With a limited resource base,
Bangladesh has made impressive gains in human development and attained almost
all of the MDGs ahead of time, Shahidul Haque said.

"In such a context, there must
be some other factors or forces at play beyond our immediate control that
create vulnerability or false incentives for our people to risk their own lives
at sea."

To identify these factors, "we
may have to look for external factors and forces", said the secretary, who
led a five-member delegation to the meeting, attended by representatives of 17
countries and three international agencies.

Citing initial estimates, the
Bangladesh delegation said there are about 30 percent of Bangladeshis among the
victims recently rescued in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

"We shall arrange to conclude
the nationality verification of these people within the shortest possible time,
and shall repatriate them to Bangladesh preferably within a month or so,"
Shahidul Haque said.

Bangladesh is deeply concerned over
the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in the Indian Ocean, and considers this to
be "a direct challenge to our 'zero tolerance' approach to human
trafficking", he continued.

The country is determined to go all
the way to stop and reverse this trend, he asserted.

"Since May 1, 2015, our Coast
Guard has intercepted a number of boats in our waters and rescued 132 people
and our naval forces remain on alert to go up to the high seas to rescue
victims and bring the culprits to justice," the foreign secretary was
quoted by the BSS as saying in the meeting.

In 2014, there were 682 trafficking
related cases involving a total of 2,834 accused, and among those convicted, 12
were sentenced to life imprisonment, Shahidul Haque added.